Feasibility Study of Polymer-based MEMS Low-Frequency Sensing Technology for Health Monitoring of Civil Structures

University Of California-Irvine, Irvine CA

Investigators

Abstract

The objective of this proposal is to evaluate existing off-the-shelf sensing technologies and launch an exploratory research that will lead to a new class of low-cost micro-electro-mechanical sensors uniquely suited for health monitoring of civil structures. This one year exploratory project will include two phases. In the first phase, we will perform a comprehensive literature survey on the available off-the-shelf sensors that could be potentially used for health monitoring of civil structures. The comparison will be made against sensors' cost, sensitivity, drift, dynamic range, size, weight, etc. This phase of research will be carried out in a close collaboration and consultations with leading experts in the field of health monitoring of civil structures. The result of this study will be a review paper on the state-of-the-art sensor technologies for structural health monitoring of civil structures which will be prepared and submitted to a journal for publication (the results will be also reported at the relevant NSF workshop). In the second phase, we will start preliminary development, design, and fabrication of prototype MEMS sensors that will meet the identified in Phase 1 performance requirements. Our approach will be based on a fundamentally new micro-fabrication technology that utilizes the processing of low Young's Modulus polymers, deposition of thin film dielectric coating, silicon surface micromachining, silicon bulk micromachining, and integration of Febry-Perot interferometeric techniques. The first version of the sensor prototype will be attempted by the end of this one year exploratory project. The background material gathered during this one year exploratory project will be used as a basis for a full three year proposal on development of novel sensors uniquely suited for civil engineering applications.